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Part Bard, Part Blogger
Benjamin Wagner has been playing New York’s watering holes since the early 90s. His songs are straightforward, with easy-to-hum melodies and memorable choruses. Now on his sixth CD, the boyish singer/songwriter is part bard, part blogger, crooning about life in the big city and on the road. He’s Ryan Adams without the ‘tude, Pete Yorn…
Read MoreI Dig Music
I bought coffee with quarters this morning, having blown all of my capital on pints of Stella and a long, foggy cab ride home from Brooklyn. I’m currently nursing a thundering headache where my skull connects to my spine, and choking back the mini puke gathering in the back of my throat. None of which…
Read MoreWalter Cronkite & Me
It’s about four in the afternoon. I’m in the corner conference room 29 floors above Times Square. The UN General Assembly building peaks through the skyscrapers down 45th Street. Black sheets of rain are blowing in from the west. The conversation is periodically interrupted by flashes of lightening and claps of thunder. I duck out…
Read MoreI heard it more than once this evening: “We’re all sinners here.” And saints, of course. Just as every cop’s a criminal. Fortunately, when you’re in a family of sinners, at least you’re keeping good company. What’s it all mean? Lemme’ try and explain. Hmmmmm, where to start? Ok, last night. I leave the windows…
Read MoreEdward R. Murrow & The Birth of Broadcast Journalism
I thought I had the job. It was the spring of 1996. I was writing freelance for Rolling Stone Online for fifty bucks an article. I’d graduated from Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Communications two years prior. I’d been in New York City less than six months. I was green. Like, flourescent green. I was dizzy…
Read MoreI’ll take Manhattan in a garbage bag with Latin written on it that says, ‘It’s hard to give a shit these days.’ Don’t let the Fantasy Island get up or Lou Reed lyrics fool ya’: I just wasn’t made for these times, or this place. But that won’t stop me. I moved to New York…
Read MoreCircling The Light
Ten years in my Hell’s Kitchen apartment and only this afternoon I discover roof access? How is that possible? New York, New York: Big City of Anonymity. Last night’s Tribeca Film Festival offering was a documentary called, “James Benning: Circling The Light.” It painstakingly chronicled avant garde filmmaker James Benning’s creative process. Basically, Benning believes…
Read MoreD.I.Y.
A fair amount of levelheaded moderation at dinner last night enabled me to rise with the sun this morning with less reluctance than late. Still squinting into the light streaming through the bedroom window, still nestled in my gray flannel sheets, I rested a moment listening to a Morning Edition report on Bob Edwards’ new…
Read MoreKill Your Idols
In the waning moments of the LSD trip that marks the emotional climax of the film ‘Almost Famous,’ Sweetwater frontman Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) threatens to jump from a suburban rooftop high above a swimming pool. Arms outstretched, Hammond shouts out to a throng of adoring teenage fans below, “I am a golden god!” The…
Read MoreRainy Days & Mondays Get Me Down
Standing on the Paoli train station platform yesterday morning with my fellow commuters, the rain cascading from the shoddy, shingled roof, I thought of The Carpenters’ tune, ‘Rainy Days & Mondays Get Me Down,’ and swore that this wouldn’t be the case for this rainy Monday. Three hours later, I was struggling through the chaos…
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